Petitions, pitches and Q&A’s: NinetyNine’s mayoral campaign-coverage week in review

It was a week of petition-signature-gathering, pitching parties and Q&A’s for Philadelphia’s mayoral candidates. Here’s our roundup of noteworthy stories from the week that was to help you keep up:

From NinetyNine and NewsWorks:

— Jim Kenney tells NinetyNine about friends, former foes and fundraising calls: NinetyNine checked in with the former councilman three weeks after he resigned his seat to run for mayor. In part one of our interview, Kenney shared stories about his path into politics and gave us a glimpse into the world of campaign fundraising. We’ll bring you part two today.

— Wannabe mayors make their pitches to Philadelphia teachers: Six of the Democrats vying to be the next mayor took turns pitching themselves to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers in hopes of scoring the union’s coveted endorsement (and maxed out campaign checks). NinetyNine caught up with the candidates as they filed out of the closed-door union meeting. 

— What green groups, cycling advocates want to hear from Philly mayoral candidates: The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia put out an agenda with their ideas for how the next mayor (and city council) should help make the city a safer and more efficient place to get around. 

— Mayoral candidates speed date millenials: Ever eager to tap into a growing millennial population in the city, five of the declared candidates for mayor got seven minutes to make their pitches to younger folk at a Center City bar on Tuesday night. Shai Ben-Yaacov gave us the rundown on the speeches – the “veggies” and the “sweets.” 

— Been There, Do This: Mayor Michael Nutter shares lessons learned for his successor: He won’t be former mayor until January, but Michael Nutter knows quite a bit about what his immediate successor will face as part of our conversation series with former denizens of the second floor of City Hall. (Click here if you’d like to read the full transcript of our hour-plus interview with Nutter.)

— Chamber of Commerce seeks job growth plans from Philly’s mayoral candidates: The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce sent questionnaires to each candidate “asking them to detail how they plan to create jobs and accelerate growth in Philadelphia.” The answers will be posted online next week.

— For Nelson Diaz, it’s all about the schools: Dave Davies caught up with the former Common Pleas judge and Department of Housing and Urban Development general counsel about the moment that got Diaz thinking about running for mayor and his views on how to help Philadelphia’s underfunded schools.

— Q&A: Nelson Diaz on affordable housing, attracting new business, and expanding SEPTA: NinetyNine’s friends over at PlanPhilly (who just this week joined our NewsWorks family) shared the highlights from their interview with Diaz. Yes, they actually got him talking about something other than the schools. 

— Obama adviser recounts time with former Philly Mayor John Street: Years before “Yes We Can” and the Shepard Fairey poster, veteran political consultant David Axelrod helped turn the embarrassing discovery of an FBI bug in former Mayor John Street’s office into a re-election win in 2003. Alexrod recounted his time with Street in an interview with our own Dave Davies on NPR’s Fresh Air this week. 

— Abraham-Kenney cage match gets underway: Dave Davies offers his take on the “nasty little war of words that erupted late last week” between Lynne Abraham and Jim Kenney, which (for now) will stay just a nasty little war due to a lack of campaign cash for negative TV ads. 

From elsewhere:

— Heavy Hitters On Jim Kenney’s New Policy Team (Citified): “Alba Martinez, a senior executive at Vanguard who flirted with running for mayor herself, will chair a new Jim Kenney campaign policy committee rife with big names.”

— Ferrick: Pander alert: Teachers may have PAC money, but little voter base: NinetyNine’s partners at The Next Mayor have launched a new series that will sound the alarm whenever the mayoral candidates appear to be “pandering to a particular voting base.” Case in point? Wednesday night’s forum hosted by Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. 

— The Mayoral Candidates Are Short on Ideas, So Citified Is Here to Help: The schools. It’s all the mayoral candidates want to talk about, but they’re not offering much more than… well, as Citified puts it: “The state needs to pay its share. To ensure that it does, I vow to develop relationships, use the bully pulpit, blah blah blah…” So Citified came up with 5 different plans to fund the schools the candidates could actually be running on. 

— Mayoral candidates’ questionnaire blunders (The Next Mayor): “Out of all the election questionnaires to screw up, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers form shouldn’t have been one of them. At least not for state Sen. Anthony H. Williams, who has long been viewed as the pro-charter candidate because of his support of charter schools and the amount of funding he has received from pro-voucher groups.”

— Why did Street sign Kenney’s petition? (The Next Mayor): “Call it a mayoral race mystery. Just how did former State Sen. T. Milton Street Sr. come to sign the nomination petition for former City Councilman James F. Kenney last week? Both are candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor in the May 19 primary.”